


Reverse

by LilacPrince



Category: Original Work
Genre: Creepy vibes, I got inspired okay-, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Necromancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:34:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26139733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacPrince/pseuds/LilacPrince
Summary: Not many things in life can be reversed. Death, however, can be.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Reverse

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, a new horror fic because I'm me, you all really shouldn't expect anything else by now.

It was time.

It had been so long since last he was here, and the teeth of time hadn't just nibbled but devoured in his absence. The floor was dirty, cracked, the gold of his memories had faded and turned muddy. The walls were cold, icy, shrouded in darkness instead of the light from the chandeliers that had warmed them in his memories. The big windows were cracked, broken, shattered in their frames as they spilled moonlight in over the floor. It carried nothing of the splendor it held in his memories. But it didn't matter, because all of that was about to change.

Candles were once again warming the floor, even if the light of his five candles was fickle and weak in comparison to the light of lost times. It was still an improvement, a familiarity that brought back a few traces of those times, like dust dancing up in front of him. Untouchable, intangible, but there. He could sense it. The candles’ flames flickered over the dirty floor that he now wished he had cleaned first. Dark red liquid stained the floor where he was kneeling, surprisingly visible in the dark hall. With slow movements, his heart pounding in his chest, he rose. He glanced out over the hall, how it faded away into oppressive darkness. The moonlight from the window behind him fell in, lighting up more than the candles did, and shone down on the bodies strewn out over the floor. Three years of rest in shallow graves had been harsh on them. Their skin was falling off like melting snow, flesh and muscles crumbled under rotten, stained clothing. It pained his heart to see it. His beloved family… So wrongfully taken from him. Ripped away from him, with him alone left to bear the grief. The killer had spared him out of mercy, but for him it was not a mercy but a fate worse than death. Left alone in the world, everything he had ever known crumbling around him, falling apart as his family fell around him that fateful night. He had done horrible things to make it this far after that night, but having to dig them up had been the worst. Many tears had stained the black earth of the graveyard, as well as the black stone in the great hall while he had to place them out. But now… Now it was all done. He had done his best to put them in the right placements, had measured and danced through the hall over and over again, stepping among the bodies, to make sure he had done it right. He had done it needlessly complicated, as his teacher had told him, but he didn't care. It  _ had _ to be this way, he was certain. It was the only way to make it work.

The biggest piece of work had been the grand piano. It had taken a lot to get it all done correctly, since the attention of time had broken it deeply. It had taken a whole day just to clean it thoroughly, and to try and tune it. But now it was perfect, lit up by candles he had placed on top. On the stool she was, the star of the show, his lovely little sister. She had been the star that fateful day so long ago, and she always had been when her fingers danced over the piano. Now her red dress was dark and torn. Every tear and stain was a stab in the heart.

He would reverse everything. He would make everything better.

The circles were complete. The bodies placed out where he needed them. The sacrifice, the part which he had enjoyed the most of his gruesome mission, was now finally done. Life had finally drained from the sacrifice, the blood staining the great hall. Red lifeblood dripped down from his palms and onto the floor, splattering by his feet in the inside of the innermost circle. Everything was ready for them. All of the emotions had been drained out of him, had ran away with the tears through three years of grief. Now, for the first time since that night, he felt calm. Completely calm, and ready for the finale of this terrible tale. He could feel a smile stretch out over his lips, something he hadn’t felt in so long. He wondered if his parents would be proud of him. Well, he supposed he wouldn't have to wonder for too long.

It was finally time.

With a deep breath he raised his hands, out to the bodies strewn around him, an invitation to join him, as he began to sing.

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

His voice echoed in the vast hall, bouncing back at him, the empty, missing tones of a waltz. He glanced up he now noticed he couldn't see the roof above him. The darkness was hanging over, oppressive, but the moonlight in his back edged him on, and he didn't hesitate to follow the moon's guidance.

_ "Dance fair Paris to the ground!" _

The air was still, holding its breath, as his voice rang in the air. Not a single gust of wind was in the room, not a single torn clothing rustled, as he sang.

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

He was close, it was so close. He could feel it in his hands, the hands dripping with red. Any moment now, any second, and all his work would come to fruition. His goal was within reach.

_ "Dance fair Paris ashes now!" _

He took a step, and another. He turned, and took a new step, before swinging back. It was slow, an invitation. Give them time to follow his lead, to understand. They would come, but he needed to be patient. Slowly he raised his arms to hold onto a ghostly partner, his hand at the height of their waist and his other hand held out. He danced in his circle, making sure not to step out of the circle just yet.

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

Ever so slowly he picked up the pace, listening to his voice resounding in the empty hall. It was close. Ever so close. He could feel it, he knew it, and he let himself be swept up in the song. His partner hadn’t fully formed yet, still nothing but a few traces that flowed in front of him, dissolving only to reappear again. But he didn’t pay any attention to it, his head turned away from his partner.

_ "Dance fair Paris to the ground!" _

He was up in the right pace, swirling around in the circle he had made. Red flew from his hands as he swept the hollow traces of his partner around. He tried not to think about the time he last had danced, with the same partner that now shifted and moved before him. He closed his eyes, ignoring the memories, and instead focused on the dance.

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

A slow wind swept in over the floor, through the cracked window. The flickering light from the candles wavered in it, but the moon was steady in it’s eternal supply. Follow the moon, he told himself. Follow the moon. Keep steady...

_ "Dance fair Paris ashes now!" _

It finally came to him, carried on the nightair. The trickling sound, dark and beautiful, like a forest stream in the middle of the night. He could almost taste it, and it made him so happy he nearly started to cry. He raised his voice higher, letting it mix with the sound of the piano. He threw his head back, feeling the smile on his face grow, as he sang, accompanied by the hypnotizing song of a dark waltz. 

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

He took a step outside of the circle, straining his ears to see if he still could hear the piano. It followed him, edged him on just as the moonlight did, and he followed. He danced, swirling around over the floor, stepping among the bodies.

_ "Dance fair Paris to the ground!" _

He swept his arms over the couple in the corner, his first destination, and let the blood drip down on them. Then he swept away, not staying to see what happened. He couldn't stop, he needed to keep going. He couldn't even turn his head over his shoulder, he needed to keep going and he couldn't risk tripping.

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

The piano was louder now, and he fell into the rhythm it offered him. He danced, and he swirled, and allowed himself to be swept up in it. He let the music, and the sound of his own voice, overtake his mind. Control slowly slipped away from him, leaving him in the music’s grasp, and he let it. He gladly gave up any control to the music, the song, the ritual that he had prepared for so long. 

_ "Dance fair Paris ashes now!" _

His coat swirled around his legs as he swung his arms over the next couple, before once again dancing away. Forward, forward, keep going, don't look back. Focus on the next one instead. Dance, and sweep, and hope.

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

One more couple received the red drops. The piano was loud now, wrapping itself around him like a blanket. It was a relief, and he happily leaned into it. He knew he wasn't in control anymore. He was caught in the rhythm, the song, the steps. He couldn't stop even if he would have wanted to. He didn't want to.

_ "Dance fair Paris to the ground!" _

The hall was brighter now. He could see lights as he swept past. Candles that didn't exist burned on the walls. The floor shined brightly, gold that shone through the dirt and the cracks. He could feel warmth in it, could almost taste the air, as he continued to dance.

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!” _

He saw colours now, too, that whirled past him. Red, black, green, blue. There was heels that clacked against the floor, there was fabric that rustled, there was voices now. Voices that talked, that laughed, that was chattering among themselves, singing with happiness.

_ "Dance fair Paris ashes now!" _

He could feel them now, too. The feel of their clothes against his palm, their gloved hand in his, the whiff of their perfume. Golden locks that he could sense before him. They shifted in his arms, unable to stay as fixed as those around him were. He finally focused on them again, watched panic settle into the shape before him, like smoke trying to settle on water. The ghost pulled, desperate to escape, knowing full well what was happening. They knew what their last taste of life was, but they were stuck in his arms. They had just as little control as he did, and were doomed to follow him to the end of the song. The end… where they would finally disappear forever. Every step a step closer to their definite end. 

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

Lips were moving in front of him, hollow screams he couldn’t hear, frightened eyes before him. There was however something there now that hadn't been there last time they danced. A deep gash in their throat, red that had flowed down and ruined their collar. He had known this would happen, that he would have his dance partner back. But they wouldn't come back fully, they would be nothing more than a ghost that existed for this dance only. He hoped so, a spike of sadism he hadn’t known he had inside him surging through his veins. A smile twisted his features, and he hoped dearly they were able to see it, to see all of it clearly. The ritual he was commencing, undoing all of their hard work. A perfect twist of their last dance. He wasn’t sure if it was the music or his own sadism that compelled him to do it, if he had completely lost control or if there was something within that still managed to edge him into action, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the way he teasingly spun his partner, watching the golden locks sway. 

_ "Dance fair Paris to the ground!" _

He could see her now. His sister, sitting by the piano. She was sitting right up, her black hair flowing over the back of her red dress, her limbs one again full of life. Heart beating blood around the dead veins, pushing the body back to life. She was playing the piano for him just like she always had. Every tone from the piano was a new breath of life into her veins. She turned her head towards him, and she smiled, as her fingers flew over the piano. He smiled back to her, tears of happiness spilling over his cheeks.

_ "Dance, poor people! Dance, and drown!" _

He could see his parents flying past him, dancing close together, smiling at one another. Their clothes were free of stains or tears, their rotting flesh now rosy, the perfect picture of health. He could hear the laughter of his cousins as they ran over the ballroom. His aunt was standing by the side, laughing, her hand clutched in front of her as if she was holding a glass. But there was no glass. Nothing to drink, nothing that could be poisoned, nothing that could take them from him this time. This time he would get everything back. He would get his family back. 

_ "Dance fair Paris ashes now!" _

The piano music echoed out, but he was done. He was back in the circle, back at the starting point. He looked out over the guests around him, and he smiled brightly. His family was dancing around him, laughing and talking to the sound of the lingering piano tunes. As the final tone echoed out, they stopped, turned to him and his sister, and loup applause rang through the hall. His sister stood up from the piano and joined him, standing by his side, but outside the circle he had created. She smiled at him, and together they bowed to the applause and laughter that filled the great hall. It was perfect, it was a reversal of that fateful night. Now, instead of watching his loved ones fall around him, he had seen them all stand up around him. Now he was the one left standing. And before him, lying in the circle, their eyes open, staring up at the roof without seeing anything, the golden curls stained by blood, was his dance partner. An eye for an eye, blood for blood. A perfect reversal.

A perfect revenge. 

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this months ago but when I went looking for it now I realised I never uploaded it here?? Well, anyways, here it is! 
> 
> Song used: Paris is Burning - St Vincent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYxguqarAuU
> 
> As always, thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are highly apprecieated!


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